Capital and operating expenses for data centers have become an increasing part of IT organizations' budgets over time. Data centers are complex facilities including many rows of data storage server racks. Each server rack has a footprint which consumes real estate, power, and cooling resources. With all the power, cooling, and cabling infrastructure, data centers are expensive facilities to operate. Thus, each server rack's footprint should be used efficiently in order to reduce costs and maximize profit. The more storage devices housed within a server rack, the more efficient the use of the footprint. However, server racks must also be designed to provide adequate cooling, prevent interference (e.g., EMI/RFI) among devices, and facilitate safe and efficient deployment and maintenance of the systems.
While existing rack designs are functional, there is still room for improvements in many aspects of server rack design. For example, many servers and other computer systems contain components mounted on sliding trays or device sleds, which allow technicians to easily access and replace the components without having to open the chassis of the computer system. In some cases, a pair of elongate conductors are provided to continuously power the device sleds as they are extended from the system chassis. Thus, measures for preventing inadvertent exposure to the conductors should be considered. Furthermore, in order to facilitate extending the device sleds from the chassis, communication cables, which are often connected at the front of each sled, must be at least as long as the desired travel length of the sled. This causes the cables to occupy a considerable amount of space when the sled is fully inside the chassis. This excess cable length (e.g., service loop) should be managed to prevent stress on associated connectors and to prevent interference with air-flow in the chassis.
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed embodiments. Further, the drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of the embodiments. Moreover, while the disclosed technology is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to unnecessarily limit the embodiments described. On the contrary, the embodiments are intended to cover all suitable modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the embodiments as defined by the appended claims.